TY - GEN

T1 - An ultra-bright white LED based non-contact skin cancer imaging system with polarization control

AU - Günther, A.

AU - Basu, C.

AU - Roth, B.

AU - Meinhardt-Wollweber, M.

PY - 2013/6/18

Y1 - 2013/6/18

N2 - Early detection and excision of melanoma skin cancer is crucial for a successful therapy. Dermoscopy in direct contact with the skin is routinely used for inspection, but screening is time consuming for high-risk patients with a large number of nevi. Features like symmetry, border, color and most importantly changes like growth or depigmentation of a nevus may indicate malignancy. We present a non-contact remote imaging system for human melanocytic nevi with homogenous illumination by an ultra-bright white LED. The advantage compared to established dermoscopy systems requiring direct skin contact is that deformation of raised nevi is avoided and full-body scans of the patients may timeefficiently be obtained while they are in a lying, comfortable position. This will ultimately allow for automated screening in the future. In addition, calibration of true color rendering, which is essential for distinguishing between benign and malignant lesions and to ensure reproducibility and comparison between individual check-ups in order to follow nevi evolution is implemented as well as suppression of specular highlights on the skin surface by integration of polarizing filters. Important features of the system which will be crucial for future integration into automated systems are the possibility to record images without artifacts in combination with short exposure times which both reduce image blurring caused by patient motion.

AB - Early detection and excision of melanoma skin cancer is crucial for a successful therapy. Dermoscopy in direct contact with the skin is routinely used for inspection, but screening is time consuming for high-risk patients with a large number of nevi. Features like symmetry, border, color and most importantly changes like growth or depigmentation of a nevus may indicate malignancy. We present a non-contact remote imaging system for human melanocytic nevi with homogenous illumination by an ultra-bright white LED. The advantage compared to established dermoscopy systems requiring direct skin contact is that deformation of raised nevi is avoided and full-body scans of the patients may timeefficiently be obtained while they are in a lying, comfortable position. This will ultimately allow for automated screening in the future. In addition, calibration of true color rendering, which is essential for distinguishing between benign and malignant lesions and to ensure reproducibility and comparison between individual check-ups in order to follow nevi evolution is implemented as well as suppression of specular highlights on the skin surface by integration of polarizing filters. Important features of the system which will be crucial for future integration into automated systems are the possibility to record images without artifacts in combination with short exposure times which both reduce image blurring caused by patient motion.

KW - automated skin cancer screening system

KW - melanoma identification

KW - non-contact dermoscopy

KW - remote detection

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84884136878&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1117/12.2032567

DO - 10.1117/12.2032567

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:84884136878

SN - 9780819496478

T3 - Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE

BT - Clinical and Biomedical Spectroscopy and Imaging III

T2 - Clinical and Biomedical Spectroscopy and Imaging III

Y2 - 13 May 2013 through 16 May 2013

ER -